One of the major causes of wear in an engine is the sliding friction between the piston rings and the cylinder walls. Wearing of the rings against the walls result in the notorious oil burning common in older cars, and replacing the rings is a major job. Additionally, one of the major inefficiencies in an engine results from the energy lost due to sliding friction between the piston rings and the cylinder walls. Up to 35% of an engine's power is consumed in overcoming internal friction, primarily that which occurs between the piston rings and cylinder walls.
Numerous engines and pumps have been developed avoiding the requirement that the piston have a sliding bearing relation with the cylinder wall by utilizing various types of accordions and diaphrams. These may be found in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: 1,180,947; 1,181,802; 2,084,496; 2,376,214; and last, an interesting modern engine is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,044,728.
Whereas some of the designs disclosed in the abovestated patents may well be worthy engines or pumps, the fact is that they must be specially designed and are not adapted to be created by the conversion of an existing engine or pump. Because of this, it is unlikely that anyone has manufactured any of these devices because of the special parts and the tremendous expense involved in the production of a single unit.
There is a need for a technique for converting existing internal combustion engines as well as various pumps to a non piston-sealing mode with a minimum of expense or specialized parts.